Lessons in social network marketing
By James Duthie – Relationship Marketing Strategist, Next Digital
There’s no doubt about it; Facebook was one of the digital success stories of 2007-2008. In just two years the former niche social network exploded in popularity, growing from a base of 14 million members to now host over 120 million members. Along with outrageous growth, Facebook also created audience engagement levels other businesses would kill for. In 2007, data from Compete suggested the average user visited 14 times a month and stayed for over 14 minutes. Wow!
The combination of extensive reach and audience engagement excited many within the marketing world. Yet despite the obvious marketing potential, many failed to generate results within the social network. Valley Wag & Techdirt are just a few to document the poor results Facebook campaigns often deliver.
There are a couple of key reasons why social network marketing has fallen short of the giddy expectations to this point:
User intent
Social networks aren’t search engines. People use search engines with a specific intent – to gather information. For many, search engines have become the primary source of product information during the research and purchasing process. As such, there is an intrinsic link between searching and purchasing behaviour. Search often leads directly to purchase. And this ensures marketers see ROI for their investment within search engines.
Social networks are a different kettle of fish altogether. User intent exists, but that intent certainly isn’t to buy. It is to connect. People are not within the ‘hunt and gather’ mode typical of the search engine user. Rather, they are looking to engage and interact with their friends.
This doesn’t mean that marketing is doomed to failure within social networks. It simply means that marketing tactics need to leverage the user’s intent - engagement.
Implementation tactics
In a recent book, legendary marketing author Seth Godin introduced the concept of a meatball sundae. The basic premise was that old school marketing tactics don’t work in new digital channels. Most attempts to market within social networks serve as classic case studies of organisations brewing a meatball sundae. Instead of aiming to leverage the user intent (engagement), most companies focused on old school interruption based tactics.
However, examples of innovative marketing emerged. The savviest of campaigns leveraged user intent (engagement) with a content format that was popular with social network users. They didn’t simply attempt to throw ads in the face of users. Fandango’s Facebook application is an ideal example. Fandango is a US based online retailer of cinema tickets. Their ‘Movie Pong’ application allows users to challenge friends to identify famous movie quotes. Challengers select the quote, send it to their friend and await their response. The challenged user then has the opportunity to send a counter challenge. The beauty of the process is that it embraces engagement between users in a fun manner, while still delivering a subtle marketing message. User engagement rates prove the formula is popular with social network users. The Fandango application has been downloaded more than 4,000 times, and top users have completed more than 200 challenges.
Engagement as a marketing technique
It’s not an easy concept for marketers to digest, but success in social networks is built upon the user intent of engagement. Success requires radically different thinking from the mass media approach of interrupting customers. It doesn’t mean fancy applications like Fandango’s Move Pong need to be built. But it does mean marketing tactics should be developed to foster engagement in a manner that is interesting and relevant to users.
Businesses wanting to understand the fundamental principles of successful marketing within social networks could learn a lot from rock bands. Bands were the first ‘businesses’ to leverage social networks for commercial gain. And their success was built on a simple process of engagement – interacting with fans, hosting online shows & regularly uploading new music. In short, they gave users a reason to engage with them.
What reason will you give users to engage with your brand?
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